Salvia Greggii Radio Red

I got more Radio Red salvias at Newman's. 

I went in looking for a mum for the urn in front, but it's too late in the season. But they had a table full of Radio Red greggii salvias, and I've had that on my list to get more of next year.

It's my favorite red salvia, redder than Furman's Red, bigger, glossier leaves than the Salvia greggii (Hot Lips I think) I got at Lowe's and more compact than Windwalker Red (which is actually S. darcyi x microphylla, not a greggii variety)

So I got several and plopped one in its nursery pot in the urn.

I have two that are in the kitchen courtyard. None of the pots I overwintered survived, but the two in the ground did.

I want two more to put in pots at the deck -- the Windwalker Red really got too big and lanky in a pot there.

And one to plant in the circle garden where the annual Strawberry Fields gomphrena was -- that never grew into much of anything.

It's too late to plant one in the circle garden, so all four that I just got will go in the garage when hard cold hits.

They are hardy to zone 7 and we are supposed to be 7 now, although I think we're right at the edge if not solidly in a colder winter zone.

But we'll see if these four new Radio Reds make it.

Mixed Flowers in the Center

My plan is to overwinter the David Verity cuphea so I can plant it out, mature and full, in the white bowl next spring. 

I may rethink that.

I might like a mix of sunny perennials and annuals all together, creating a real focal point of color and form for the center of the circle.

If done right all the plants would fill the bowl in a way the cuphea just didn't.

I rarely do mixed flower containers unless I get some already planted up from the nursery. But I'd try 

• Profusion zinnias
• A division of the blue carpet sedum I have
• Vivid blue lobelia
• Petunias and pansies of course 

. . . just a random mix of things.

I liked the cuphea well enough, but the Vermillionaire plant was a simple look.

I like David Verity better, and if I can winter it and keep it full looking, that's still an option for the bowl. 

If not, a colorful profusion of sunny flowers would be better and I'd put David Verity back in the blue container behind the deck. It did well there.

(I've since taken the Vermillionaire out. It looked fine after one morning this week that hit 26 degrees, but a couple days after that it was clear it was gone. The flowers were still bright, but the foliage had shriveled.)

26 Degrees

The first freeze of the season. It was 26 degrees overnight. 

But everything survived nicely, even the annual lobelia and the Profusion zinnias. The Vermillionaire cuphea is fine. I did bring the David Verity cuphea into the house after cutting it down as I get ready for winter.

The day dawned cold but still, and the hot sun quickly made things pleasant. A lovely fresh feeling day with quiet sunshine and cool air.

There are no more freezing nights for the next 10 days. Just warm days of sunshine in the 50s and 60s with little wind and overnight temps above 32.

I had unhooked the hoses but did not drain them or bring them into the garage. Now I'll have to hook them back up to do chores and water some things over the next weeks.

Cutting Back

I don't think I can bring the David Verity cuphea into the house to winter over as I planned unless I cut it way back. It's just too big and leggy. I tried it in the bathroom and in front of the sliders where winter sun would be good for it. But it's too much.

I did find an article that says potted cuphea can be brought inside, but to cut it back first. So I did, although I hated to sacrifice all the pretty flowers it was still putting out.

The only flirtation with overnight temperatures of 25° - 29° is one night next week, and then it rebounds to above freezing nights and beautiful warm days well into early November!

Will that one overnight freeze be enough to zap the cuphea? 

Assuming it might, I cut it down to just a few leaves at the base of the stems and put it next to to my laundry hamper in my bedroom.

It had gotten so leggy because I watered it too much. 

I did the same with the potted Windwalker Red salvia and the Black Adder agastache. Their leaves got so shriveled in the summer sun if I did not water, but the extra moisture made them tall and spindly.

The salvia was actually cut back in summer and it regrew quickly into tall stalks with vivid blooms at the tips.

I need to figure out how to keep these potted plants happy without over watering. 

The red salvia may go in the ground next spring, in a spot where there is no emitter. It needs water to flower well, and maybe I can keep it hose watered but leave it drier in between waterings.

Despite the continued lovely weather, I did cut back the tickseed that had gotten raggy looking, to get ready to put it in the garage. 

Still full and green and even putting out a few flowers, but it was time. What a performer it was all summer long, constantly in full bloom. 

In spring I will divide it and use the divisions in other locations. Maybe in pots, maybe I'll put one in the ground.

The Blue Ice amsonias are a nice yellow now in the corner by the guest room window. 

They are a cool, lemony yellow, bright and eye catching. I can't wait for the new ones I just planted to fill out around the circle garden and produce this elegant foliage and color in fall. It will take a good 3 to 4 years, though.

Some trees have lost leaves, the Virginia creeper is brown and kaput, but it's still so warm and beautiful.

Simple Switch

I switched two garden decor things and I like it better. For years, ever since we moved in, I have had the Relax sign up against the wall between the two big windows on the east side.  My metal peacock, more recent, has been in a couple locations in the back yard.

I simply switched the sign and the peacock.

The peacock adds a little more presence than the sign in the dining room window garden, and it was a bit lost in the back yard. 

I had it in the open on the deck at first, but tucked it into the potting bench curve where a blank spot was. 

The relax sign is just enough taller and looks better rising above the stuff along the empty wall in the potting bench curve.

The peacock is fuller and more visible in the dining room window garden, and I can see it from inside the house.

Both of these empty spots needed something and I was struggling to think what to plant that would fit the spaces and be tall enough to see. 

But I don't want more plants, I'm trying to edit down. And neither of these empty places has an emitter right there. 

So rather than plants, I need hardscape or decor items to tuck into empty places, without getting too cutesy or over decorated. 

These two metal sculpture things, switched, seem to work.

Raydon's Favorite

Blustery, windy and cloudy all day today, with periods of spitting rain and some harder rain. 

It's the remnants of a hurricane off the west coast of Mexico that are now straggling up from the southwest. Not a lot of rain for us, but chilly, unsettled, agitated weather in northern New Mexico.

This will go on for a few days. Still no frost forecast.

Raydon's Favorite aromatic aster is finally, after many years, looking full and flowery. More magenta pink than I remembered from when I grew it in CT. It had been a deeper purple for me there I thought.

So I checked old photos, and boy did it grow for me back east. I remember now how huge it was and how I had to cut it back and tame it.

It was a soft blue purple there and it formed big round mounds, so lush.

The difference is the climate and the moisture of course. But why the difference in color? Soil chemical and composition?

Anyway, my tidy little aster, blooming mostly at the top and tucked in by the sumacs along the garage wall is nice.

Not what I remembered or grew before, but nice.

Forecast

It's closing in on mid October and there is no frost yet, and none forecast for the next 10 days, only flirting with a low of 37° by the 19th. This is unheard of for fall in the southern Rockies!

I got out on these mild days and cleaned up a bit -- tossed the petunias, cut back some stalks. 

But with more weeks yet of nice weather, it's still too soon to do much else. Too soon to shut off the irrigation and too soon to bring pots into the garage to overwinter.

After a wet summer (12 inches since April 30, most of it gentle and soaking) we are expecting more rain next week, over several days. 

Wet, mild, and so unusual. 

Every year since we have been here, a hard freeze comes quickly and everything gets zapped by now. In some years the garden is done for by late September. Not this year.

The Virginia creeper vine is a nice red on one side, although it never gets that bright red on the long stretch in front of the patio.

On that side it usually just quickly browns with the typical early frost, but this year it hasn't crisped yet, it's just bronzy and dark. 

Not the brilliant red advertised and not the bright red of the vine on the other side by the Rose of Sharon.

I plan to bring the David Verity cuphea into the house for the winter, then plant it out in the white bowl next year.

I'll put it by my sunny bedroom slider. It needs a hard pruning in late winter -- it's gotten a little leggy. 

I'll have to see how it works to overwinter it, and whether we can go away in January (to CA) and again in March (to Tucson) and leave it unwatered for a week or more then. 

It is supposed to have water reduced and dry out while indoors, but it will need some.

This way I'll have a larger, mature plant to put in the bowl next spring, rather than waiting all summer for a small purchased plant to get any size and fill out -- which both David Verity and Vermillion didn't do until late August, really.

But with our mild damp fall and an extended forecast of more, it's still too early to bring this cuphea in. 

The forecast is making me antsy for fall tasks!

Thunder and Rain at Night

Thunderstorms woke us up in the wee hours of the morning and rolled through with hard rain. The patio cushions got soaked -- I did not get out of bed quick enough to bring them in. The kitchen flooded, not bad but a puddle spread out to the rug under the sink, and with tiny bits of mulch washed in.

The total was three quarters of an inch of rain. It's so rare to see anything over a quarter inch in that rain gauge from any one rain event and this year truly measurable rain has been frequent.

In eight years I've never seen a monsoon season like this one. We're now at almost 12 inches since the beginning of May. 

Technically monsoon runs from fourth of July to the end of September, but we've been getting so much rain for almost 6 months now.

More is forecast.

Half an Inch While We were Gone

Apparently it rained a half inch on the 28th, Sunday, while we were in California. I came home to see it in the rain guage.

Of course this was the first time I hired someone to come over and water the pots every day. I'll still pay him, of course, but half an inch in the 7 days took a lot of pressure off to hand water.

The pots are root bound and I guess it has been sunny since the rain event, so some things dried out quickly. And I think he missed the David Verity cuphea behind the deck, it looked pretty shriveled. I watered it as soon as we got in. It revived. Thank goodness for the half inch of rain it got during the week.

The week with grandkids was fabulous -- a birthday party for two year old TJ, swim lessons, grocery shopping, dinner at the other grandmother's new townhouse, movies, the library, the park, play time, running around, reading books, snuggling, and . . .

 . . . . mornings in bed with Grammy.

Now I miss those two something fierce, but I'm also glad to be back to my normal, quiet routine!

Going Away

This time when we go out to California for a week I am having someone come to the house to water all the pots. No more setting up an elaborate sprinkler on a timer with all my scattered pots gathered into one space to be watered automatically.

In the past that worked, kind of, but I don't have an open space big enough for the sprinkler to reach everything when gathered together in one spot. The sprinkler actually overshoots too wide an arc, and it's hard to adjust it down without losing coverage. And the timers are a pain to set.

So I've hired Tommy Tapia, a handyman in the neighborhood, to come every day and hose water everything. It will cost $20 a day.

I offered to move all the pots to one central location, but he says not to, he'll go around and get to each where  it is (there are a couple small pots tucked in the garden, I'll move those out for him). If anything in the ground looks wilted he'll water those too.

This is better than asking a neighbor to do it as a favor -- I really need daily watering even this late in the season (especially this late, the big plants are potbound).